Leaving your manager, pricing. Quarter

Where the rest of the bill hides.

None of these is on the fee your body corporate manager quotes. Each one is a line Quarter removes or shows you.

What a body corporate manager charges on top of the management fee, where each charge hides, and what Quarter does about it.
The line	Typically	Where it hides	With Quarter
Insurance commission	Typically: A share of the premium, where the manager takes one.	Where it hides: Inside the premium. At best, a line in the disclosures at the AGM.	With Quarter: No commission, on anything.
Disbursements	Typically: Often billed on top of the fee.	Where it hides: Printing, postage, photocopying and "administration".	With Quarter: Notices, agendas and minutes go out digitally. There is nothing to post.
Software and portal fees	Typically: Recovered from the building, or inside the fee.	Where it hides: "Management software", "owner portal", "technology fee".	With Quarter: Replaced outright. Community is free, with a login for every owner.
Extra meetings	Typically: Often billed per meeting.	Where it hides: The fee schedule.	With Quarter: Hosted and minuted inside the plan, however many you hold.
Disclosure statements on a sale	Typically: Often charged for each pre-contract disclosure.	Where it hides: Charged to the selling owner, so the committee never sees it.	With Quarter: Pre-contract and pre-settlement disclosures produced from Quarter's records. Nothing per disclosure.
Arrears notices	Typically: Often billed per letter.	Where it hides: Recovered from the owner who is behind.	With Quarter: Levy reminders go out automatically, as part of Finance.
Insurance claims	Typically: Often billed per claim or by the hour.	Where it hides: The fee schedule.	With Quarter: Tracked on the compliance dashboard, nothing per claim.
Professional time	Typically: Special projects, billed separately.	Where it hides: The fee schedule.	With Quarter: Not something software replaces. When you need a person, we quote it up front.

New Zealand fee guides publish the management fee and say special projects are billed separately. They don't say how much, which is the point. Your own agreement and your last year's accounts are the real numbers.

Now price your building.

How many units. If you know the management fee on your budget, put it in and we'll use yours, then add what a normal year puts on top of it.

25 units, New Zealand

A body corporate manager would cost this building $5,400 to $13,500 a year, all in.

Management fee: $4,500 to $9,000
Extras, in a normal year: +$900 to $4,500
A body corporate manager, all in: $5,400 to $13,500

Quarter, self-managed

$3,600 a year ($300 a month)

25 units at $12 a month, with Community included. No commission, no disbursements, nothing per meeting.

You keep $1,800 to $9,900 a year.

That is 33 to 73% less than paying a body corporate manager, every year the building runs itself.

Review your real fees Talk to us about your building Link to this estimate

The management fee is the range published for New Zealand in 2026, with the minimum a body corporate manager charges a small scheme and the lower rate they quote a big one. Extras are 20 to 50% of the fee in a normal year, from Australian managers' own guides: no New Zealand source puts a number on them. A bad year costs more.

Review your management fees

Now do it with your building's own accounts.

The calculator is an estimate. The review is the real figure: every dollar your body corporate manager was paid last year, beside what Quarter would cost the same building, and the service you got for it.

1.

Find your building

Press “Review our management fees” on its page. Quarter already knows its size and its state, so the estimate is there before you type anything.
2.

Hand over the paperwork

Once you've joined: the last statements or budget, the management agreement and the insurance renewal invoice. Quarter reads them and adds up the fee, the extra work, the disbursements and any commission on the insurance.
3.

Put it to the owners

A poll with the real figures on it, to send round. It binds nobody. When the numbers make the case, the motion to run the building yourselves comes next, and Quarter drafts that too.

Review your management fees Talk to us first

Your committee is already doing most of it.

The decisions were always yours, and in most buildings so is most of the work. What a body corporate manager adds is coordination: forwarding, chasing, sending and booking. That is the part Quarter does now, for a fraction of the fee.

Who does each job with a body corporate manager, and who does it with Quarter.
The job	With a body corporate manager	With Quarter
Deciding what gets done	With a body corporate manager: The committee	With Quarter: The committee
Answering owners	With a body corporate manager: The committee, mostly. The body corporate manager in office hours.	With Quarter: Quarter, at any hour, by email, WhatsApp or the web, with the clause it came from.
Chasing contractors and quotes	With a body corporate manager: The body corporate manager, once the committee has chased the body corporate manager.	With Quarter: Quarter emails them from the building's own address and puts their replies on the job.
Notices, agendas and minutes	With a body corporate manager: The body corporate manager	With Quarter: Quarter drafts them, and the chair signs them off.
Levies, arrears and the books	With a body corporate manager: The body corporate manager	With Quarter: Levy invoicing, reminders and trust accounting, in Finance.
The insurance renewal	With a body corporate manager: The body corporate manager, usually for a commission	With Quarter: The committee, with the policy and its dates on the compliance dashboard, and no commission.
The records	With a body corporate manager: The body corporate manager's system	With Quarter: The building's own, with a login for every owner.

Leaving is mostly dates and a properly called meeting.

Most buildings that want to run themselves think they are stuck until the next AGM. Most are not. Leaving a management agreement is mostly notice periods, dates and a properly called meeting, and Quarter will do the reading.

We'll get you out of the contract you're in: Send us the agreement and Quarter reads it: the notice it requires, who gives it, when, and what the building is still on the hook for. You get dates and the clauses they came from, not an opinion.
You probably don't have to wait for the AGM: A general meeting can usually be called for the purpose, and ending an agreement is generally a resolution owners can put themselves. What yours needs depends on your own operational rules and your Act. Quarter will tell you which, and quote the provision.
And if you genuinely can't move faster, Quarter is free until you can: Run Quarter alongside the arrangement you're leaving, at no charge, until the meeting that ends it. There is no contract at our end to leave later.

What leaving a manager actually takes differs by jurisdiction and by what your building's own documents say. Quarter reads both and shows you the clause; it isn't legal advice, and for a contested exit you should get some.

Talk to us about leaving your manager Read the guide

Need more than software? Ask.

Most years a building needs the software and nothing else. Some years it needs a return filed or somebody to chair a difficult meeting. You don't need a management contract for that. Tell us what you need and we'll quote it.

Building review: An independent look over the records, the finances, the long-term maintenance plan, the insurance and what the law expects.
Tax filing: Returns prepared and filed from the records already in Quarter.
Legal document review: Your operational rules or a management agreement, read by somebody who does this for a living.
AGM hosting: Somebody independent to chair, hold the agenda and put the resolutions properly.
Major works proposals: Scoping, quotes and the funding case for a big job, put to owners as a vote.
Account management: A named person who knows your building, for when the committee needs somebody to hand things to.

Talk to us about what you need

Or ask the Manager in the app, it will put you in touch with the right person.

You might be wondering...

Is there a minimum number of units?

No. Quarter works for Body Corporates of any size, from a 3-unit townhouse to a 600-unit tower. The price per unit falls as the building grows: $12 per unit per month for the first 50 units, $8 for the next 50, and $5 for every unit after that.

What's in the self-managed plan?

Everything a body corporate manager does. Governance: meetings, minutes, compliance and insurance. Finance: budgets, levies, trust accounting and the long-term maintenance fund. Community is included, and the first 30 days are free.

Can we start with Community and add the rest later?

Yes, and most buildings do. Community is free and every owner touches it, so it goes first. The self-managed plan is there when the committee is ready to run the building itself.

We still have a body corporate manager. Can we use Quarter?

Start on Community, which is free, while you give notice. Send us the management agreement and Quarter will tell you what ending it takes: the notice, the dates and the clauses they come from. If you can't leave before a meeting, the rest of Quarter is free until that meeting.

How do you know what body corporate managers charge?

From published 2026 New Zealand fee guides, and Australian managers' own guides for the extras, because no New Zealand source puts a number on them. They are ranges, not quotes, and every estimate on this page shows the cheap end as well as the dear one. Your own budget is the real number, so put yours into the calculator.

Are there any lock-in contracts?

No. Month to month. Cancel any time and your records hand over at no charge, which is not true of every contract you'll compare this against.

Your manager costs more than the fee on your budget.